New Album Out Here Now
Available now via Parish Road Music
Like the homesteaders of her native Mississippi River Delta, Ever More Nest builds houses of emotion among fields of mercy, forests of fears, and streams of consciousness. These are houses that are lived in, that draw in visitors to comfortable confines with the promise of warmth despite the dust, grit, and dangers of the day.
Rooted in Southern musical traditions and infused with confessional 90s angst, the music of Ever More Nest can likewise lull and rock you right off a front porch. Ever More Nest’s dynamic, homegrown voice—hugged by lush, church-pew harmonies—is complemented by ghostly, effusive guitars, spirited mandolin and banjo, mournful fiddle, and a rhythm section steady as a country train.
Whether in a cinematic crescendo of all-consuming sound or in a quiet soliloquy of only voice and guitar, Ever More Nest allows audiences to wade deep into the waters of their humanness or stay safely ashore, where the rhythm of waves—the steady rock and roll—bring contentedness and joy.
A native of North Louisiana, Ever More Nest’s Kelcy Wilburn (“Kelcy Mae”) was equally influenced by the gospel, country, and blues of her Bible Belt hometown as she was by the emotional rawness of the artists that consumed her generation: Cranberries, Counting Crows, Tori Amos, Radiohead, et al. At 18, she moved to New Orleans, where open-mindedness and acceptance gave her the freedom to be herself and to find her voice. As a student of creative writing, she fostered a love of language evident across her early releases as Kelcy Mae and across Ever More Nest’s debut and sophomore albums.
The Ever More Nest debut, The Place That You Call Home (2018), was nominated for Best Alt-Country Album in the Independent Music Awards and its single, “Major Tom,” named a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition and Unsigned Only Music Competition. Following its release, Wilburn and her cadre of accomplished New Orleans musicians graced a variety of stages across the Southeast, Midwest, and Northeast United States, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Milwaukee’s Summerfest music festival, and listening rooms across the country.
Inspiration for the band name “Ever More Nest” came from a line in a poem by Mary Ann Samyn, which Wilburn found striking in its ability to evoke both a nostalgia for and discomfort with place. The Place That You Call Home is likewise obsessed with the idea of place and poses the universal question: “Just where do I belong?” According to Folk Radio UK, “The answer is clearly in any discerning Americana CD collection.”
For Ever More Nest’s sophomore album, Out Here Now, Wilburn again teamed up with Nashville-based Producer Neilson Hubbard, multi-instrumentalist Will Kimbrough, and bassist Dean Marold. New York native Fats Kaplin was brought in for the album’s emotive fiddle, strings, and pedal steel.
“I’m not done living in the spacious, warm, musical landscape we created on The Place That You Call Home, so it only felt natural to re-enlist Neilson, Will, and Dean for volume two,” says Wilburn.
Featuring songs written both before and during the pandemic, Out Here Now builds upon the immersive sounds and themes of its predecessor with textures, tones, and lyricism that delve deep into what makes us human. Wilburn calls the album a “journey to and celebration of the soul that lends itself well to the active-listeners, dreamers, travelers and seekers.”
“These songs are personal and spiritual explorations of loneliness, growth, vulnerability, and transformation—all feelings and experiences brought into focus during my pre-pandemic music and touring life and during the shutdowns and quarantine of the pandemic itself,” she says. For Wilburn, the songs are meant to honor the complexity and value of human emotion by offering it space to be both experienced and learned from.
The songs of Ever More Nest are brought to life on stage and on tour by a tight-knit family of New Orleans musicians that includes Wilburn’s wife Lucy Cordts (banjo, mandolin), Dave DeCotiis (guitar), Rebecca Crenshaw (violin), Rose Cangelosi (drums), Jeremy Joyce (guitar), Alec Barnes (drums, bass) and Adam Everett (drums).
“Brilliant…a beautiful tapestry weaved from thought-provoking messages and Wilburn’s honest soul.” — No Depression
“Pairing evocative imagery with an arrangement that crescendos almost to the point of rupture.” — The Boot
“Planted musically somewhere between New Orleans zest and Tennessee cool, riding that line into a new blend of Americana to titillate.” — PopMatters
“Beautifully simplistic…a reflective, amber-doused visual, blooms out of this musical summons.” — Wide Open Country
“Summons a new voice in the musical world of New Orleans, that put the song and lyrics first and lets the rhythmic foundation naturally follow. The band runs with the poetic freedom of Lilly Hiatt while conjuring the rocking anthems of Heartless Bastards.” — Glide Magazine
“Beautiful yet haunting.” — Americana Music Association
“Wilburn’s vocal straddles the affecting lines between weariness and prettiness, delivering the kind of performance we couldn’t forget if we wanted to.” — Country Queer
“Worthy of your attention … brings many rewards in the listening.” — Lonesome Highway
“These songs have a surface appeal that would fit comfortably into NPR playlists…Wilburn doesn’t take the easy way out; and when she says something sympathetic, she works to make it ring true.” — OffBeat Magazine
“Eminently listenable … the music sparkles and shimmers … the influence of Gillian Welch and Kasey Chambers, alt-country singers she admires, is evident.” — The New Orleans Advocate